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Officials of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) have met with the Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi during a courtesy and solidarity visit on Thursday.

The visit was amid controversy generated from the choice of two presidential aspirants as the northern consensus aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Part of the delegation was the CNG spokesman, Comrade Abdul-Azeez Suleiman who made available the full speech to The Street Reporters Newspaper.

Below is the full address of the group during the solidarity visit:

On behalf of this official delegation of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), I want to thank you for honouring us with the privilege of being received in courtesy visit despite your usual tight schedule, the natural challenges of advanced age and ever mounting societal and family demands.

We are here today, to particularly appreciate your support and encouragement as father and leader, both in your personal capacity as Professor Ango Abdullahi, Magajin Rafin Zazzau, and in your formal capacity as the Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).

From the outset, it is important to place on record our immeasurable gratitude to your leadership, sacrifice, statesmanship, patriotism and unwavering commitment to the interests of the people of Northern Nigeria, and citizens of Nigeria as a whole.

We are quite aware that in recent times, you have come against the antagonism of internal collaborators and political hooligans such as a former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido and his ilk working for interests represented by the protégés of those who have in the past, vilified the North, killed its leaders, scandalized its institutions and ridiculed its traditions and customs.

We are as much aware of your gallant stand in anticipating and checkmating the manoeuvres of members of the emerging cycle of internal collaborators who, under various guises are trying to bring down the North by the continuous destruction of its institutions, undermining its economic and social fabrics, encouraging the current widespread disturbances, rampant cultural corruption and social problems being felt across the region.

These forces, we are aware, have recently unleashed a band of northern conscripts with insatiable financial greed and shameless desperation to reclaim their long lost relevance in society, to mount a sustained assault on your personality aimed at ultimately weakening the Northern Elders Forum from within beginning with the attempt to isolate an ordinarily bona fide exercise conducted in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which could have hopefully been extended to other parties to avoid to the North going into the coming primaries virtually unprepared.

These antagonists come in all shades and colours ranging from discredited former leaders who have stepped themselves of every iota of respect and public trust in their respective states and now posing as major stakeholders in the North.

It is only in Nigeria that people who are responsible for the decline of their political parties in their domains by attempting to entrench a culture of dominance by forcing their children and other family members on positions of control at the expense of the larger productive segment of society could still be tolerated to shamelessly attempt to return to the limelight.

It is in view of this unfolding scenario Sir, that we are here to reassure you of the solid solidarity and unbreakable support of the CNG as you deal with recent stresses of unprovoked, unwarranted and unacceptable reactions from distractive forces of reactionary, kindergarten attention seakers and to cheer you on your daily strive to deal with some of the most serious challenges facing our region today.

The CNG, representing a vast majority of Northern societies, today declares enough is enough.

The younger generation of Northerners will no longer remain passive under such deliberate and sustained irresponsible actions against the symbols of Northern unity, integrity and dignity, and shall henceforth be forced to react to every provocation, unwarranted violation or interference with the sanctity of the personality of our genuine leaders and elders.

We therefore warm that all those Northern elements with no useful moral credentials other than a chronic penchant for attacking, insulting, and denigrating responsible Northern elders, leaders and symbols, which you eminently represent, should know that our patience and accommodation of such irresponsible actions have been overstretched.

Thus, the detractors and detractors coming from within the North who thrive on fomenting trouble and escalating tension among our people for a southern fee, should be warned that their actions will not go unnoticed, and in the fullness of time, they will be held accountable for their recklessness.

Meawhile, the Coalition of Northern Groups hereby recommits itself to continue drawing inspiration from your life and works and shall strive, in all we do, to live by the personal and social values and standards you and other genuine Northern Elders and leaders have set for yourselves.

We at the CNG will continue to look up to you as a great statesman, a mentor, a guardian, a living history and an embodiment of all the exemplary qualities young Northerners should strive to achieve.

We finally urge you Sir, to remain steadfast in providing leadership for strong resistance to the antics of these political dealers desperately seeking to market the worst, unproductive, inefficient individuals with no record of credence in all their endeavours on the people as candidates from the North.
Thank you.